The management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which appears feckless to run affairs in a professional manner, has completely succumbed to bureaucratic mindset. A recently happened incident with PK-757 at Bukhara International Airport, Uzbekistan, tells how PIA did not bother to provide relief to its hundreds of passengers and crew who were stranded at the Bukhara airport for more than 5 hours.
According to the report of the pilot of the said flight: "The flight was scheduled from Lahore to London Heathrow on September 17, 2015. During travel an old lady passenger suffered a heart attack. As confirmed by the three onboard doctors as passengers, medical assistance was provided to her by them. But since her health was deteriorating rapidly doctors advised me [the pilot] to land as soon as possible".
The pilot Captain Amir Hashmi stated that he asked the doctors to reconfirm and reassure because he knew based on his past experience that dealing with PIA admin was not easy task. "Yet, the doctors were persistent that if the plane was landed she might survive, hence the flight diverted to Bukhara which was nearest designated alternate," debrief report said.
He said that doctors arrived at the aircraft after landing and immediately took her to the hospital where she got admitted in ICU and the crew was told that she was not fit to travel anymore. "Medical as well as other ground staff was very professional and efficient. All the prerequisites from the local authority were obtained within the 45 minutes of our landing," he maintained.
The pilot further said that first of all it was impossible to communicate through SATCOM since all the numbers stored in SATCOM menu baring one of London station manager were either invalid or unreachable. Secondly, no urgency was shown from the head office to facilitate our departure. He said that once they were all set to depart, they were told that negotiations were underway to get a waiver from CAA for letting Pilot In Command (PIC) to carry out post overweight landing.
This negotiation took another 2 hours despite their repeated reminders warning them that if there's any further delay then crew time limitation will be met and consequences will be huge, pilot said. Moreover, he said that finally they received clearance from PCAA at 13:29 GMT along with waiver to extend their duty.
When contacted Aamir Memon, spokesman PIA denied to have delayed the departure of PK-757 at Bukhara International Airport, Uzbekistan to get a waiver from CAA for letting PIC to carry out post overweight landing. He said that flight had missed its parking slot at London Heathrow airport, following emergency landing at Bukhara Airport and added that PIA management after taking fresh parking slot from London authorities allowed flight for departure, which might have been the reason for delay.
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